Rifle: Mountaineers Travel To Take On VMI
February 09, 2007 02:47 PM | General
February 9, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University rifle team will travel to Lexington, Va., to take on the Virginia Military Institute at 8 a.m. on Saturday, Feb.10.
West Virginia (5-4, 2-4) enters this weekend’s action after suffering its first home loss of the season on Saturday, Feb. 3. In a very close decision, the Mountaineers fell 4568-4582 to the Rebels of Mississippi. Brian Launer posted the highest smallbore score of the day (580). The sum was also a season high for the senior.
VMI is coming off a 4346-4512 loss to N.C. State on Saturday, Feb. 3. The Keydets totaled 2172 points in smallbore and summed 2174 points in air rifle.
This weekend’s match will serve as NCAA qualifiers for the Mountaineers. The top eight teams will advance to the competition to be held March 9-10 in Fairbanks, Alaska. Eight at-large spots will be available for individual shooters. This will provide a bit of added pressure for the West Virginia shooters this weekend.
“I think the big pressure this weekend is because this is NCAA qualifiers,” said WVU coach Jon Hammond. “We have to shoot incredibly well to do anything team-wise. But all the shooters have a chance to qualify individually for NCAAs. I think there’s a lot of pressure on them for that. They just want to do as well as possible.”
Saturday’s match marks the first meeting between the two teams since 2000. West Virginia leads the all-time series with the Virginia Military Institute 21-3.
